Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Coleman's Cryptozoo


Coleman's Cryptozoo
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.
Last night, Loren Coleman (of the site Cryptomundo) and I traded e-mails back and forth about Monster By Mail. In order to get featured, he threw down the gauntlet for me to draw a "zoo" of a bunch of cryptid creatures, including Nessie, Bigfoot, The Yeti, and the lesser known Dover Demon and Mothman.

Within a few hours, and much to his delight, he had the image in his inbox. You can read more at his site.

Here's a pretty cool excerpt:
"Called “Speedy” at his former mainstream illustrator job, the guy is rapid in his response. Last night, within an hour in email time, Len sent me his black and white graphic art version of my one line request. What he produced, actually, was superb, in my view, as he made “my art” more nonfictional than cryptofictional, as compared to his other pieces. It is almost as if he read my mind, combining my serious but open-minded take on cryptids with his graphic art vision of how he does his illustrations."
On another note, I think I was channeling a little bit of Jim Lee with this piece. I've been reading Batman Hush and it's taking me forever because I am poring over the incredible art. The ink style was definitely Lee-influenced.